Rethinking the prerequisite paradigm

Academics who teach upper-level biology courses at tertiary education institutions typically establish prerequisites for their courses, with the anticipation that students will arrive at class prepared with a good understanding of basic concepts of chemistry and biology. Establishing prerequisites serves two purposes: it justifies the omission of 'previously learned' material from the curriculum and also permits the assumption that students are prepared to move to higher-level learning domains and tackle conceptually complex topics.